Bioimmunoassays for proinflammatory cytokines involving cytokine-induced cellular adhesion molecule expression in human glioblastoma cell lines.

Twelve human glioblastoma/astrocytoma cell lines were tested for cellular adhesion molecule expression following cytokine induction in order to identify a cell line that would be suitable for functional cytokine bioimmunoassays. Many of the glioblastoma/astrocytoma cell lines were shown to inducibly express intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1, CD54) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) following stimulation with interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), tumour necrosis factor-beta (TNF-beta), and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), but not with any of the several other cytokines tested. The cell line U-138MG, a human glioblastoma-derived line, was the most sensitive one to IL-1 alpha/beta, TNF-alpha/beta and IFN-gamma for ICAM-1 expression, comparing well with proinflammatory cytokine-induced ICAM-1 expression in the endothelial cell hybrid EA-hy926 line, and was shown to be useful for the functional assay of the biological potencies of these individual cytokines. Such bioimmunoassays, which are developed by routine ELISA techniques, should provide valuable alternatives to existing bioassays for these cytokines.